A few weeks ago, Teresa Sayward did the unthinkable. The New York state Republican assembly woman told a state news program that she'd consider voting for Obama. "I really, truly think that the candidates that are out there today for the Republican side would take women back decades," she said on Capitol Tonight.
Apparently, she's not the only one worried about her party's direction on women's health. A new story from North Country Public Radio highlights Sayward and fellow Republican Janet Duprey, who are both supporting the Reproductive Health Act, which would codify access to abortion and contraception. Sayward is one of the co-sponsors.
In the segment, Duprey spoke out about her own commitment to women's health. She noted her own adolescence in the early '60s, when women and girls had few options. "We can never return to that era," she told the radio station. "We absolutely cannot."
As the Prospect's Jamelle Bouie noted Monday, the GOP's efforts to restrict access to contraception and abortion, both at the state and national level, has left the party struggling for female voters. Multiple polls show Obama winning the female vote by enormous margins.
Sayward and Duprey aren't the only GOP women to speak out against the trend in their party's politics. Less than two weeks ago, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, another Republican, spoke in favor of Planned Parenthood's preventative care programs. Of course both Sayward and Hutchison are retiring.
